What's it worth?

[freeisforme]

About a year ago I picked up a great little 14' 4" MFG fiberglass V hull with intentions of hanging a 50hp motor on it, maybe a fresh transom job, and two new seats to use for fishing the river around here. It's been on the back burner waiting for me to get around to it. The hull is rock solid, it's got no damage, no patches, and a rock solid deck.
Well, after riding in the same model boat this weekend, I now have my doubts whether or not this boat will work at all for me. At 6' 3" tall and 360lbs, and being the lighter of most of my fishing buddies, I don't think this boat is safe with just the weight of two guys in it?
A buddy and I took his out this past week, he's got a 40hp motor on his, and two pedestal seats mounted on an aluminum reinforcement plate. The first thing I noticed was that the seat, even though the pedestal was only about 6" long, was way too high, I sat with my head fully above the windshield. Second, there was no place to put my knees, they wouldn't fit under the dash, and the seats were too close together to sit sideways. (It would have been fine if there was one seat dead center, that way it could be positioned so I had some arm room and legroom. But putting two seats in line would kill almost all the free deck space too. The boat was stable at rest, (it didn't feel like it would flip or dump us even if we both moved to the one side), but it rode low at the stern, and the motor's cover and pan would dip into the water if both of us were at the back of the boat.

Needless to say I don't think the boat is capable of safely carrying 700+lbs of passengers, tackle, and fuel safely. It would make a great one man boat but that's not what I need.

My question is, what is a hull like this worth? I don't want to just give it away, its in good shape and has great potential but just not for big people to use. A couple of guys maybe 200lbs or so would be fine.

The hull is not waterlogged, it's a bit faded and dusty now but buffs right up, (I had it all buffed up and looking nearly new when I first got it, but it's sat now for a year). I'd like to find it a home and keep the new trailer I bought for it and go find a 16' boat, which I figure is about the limit of my tow vehicle.

One thing that got me is that I've been using a 14' aluminum boat for years, it holds three guys, all over 300lbs well, it moves and planes out with a 20hp motor and is very stable with good freeboard. What's different about the wider and even slightly longer MFG hull?

The MFG is light, I can lift either end myself, with little effort, I'd guess it's no more than maybe 450 or 500 lbs total. The stern is lighter than the bow end. The deck is solid glass, and from what I'm told it's got no wood in the lower hull either, and a look into the drain hole in the back with a bore scope camera shows no foam flotation either. The flotation seems to be a combination of the trapped airspace below the deck and foam in the gunwales and under the bow plate.

At this point I'm leaning towards maybe finding a small trihull to make into a fishing boat, something light, and one that will handle well with a 50hp motor with thought that it'll have more surface area and handle more weight for it's size.

 

[crackedglass]

Re: What's it worth?

As far as value, I'd say it really depends on the condition and how bad someone wants it.
I agree that the 14' MFG is too small for a pair of big guys, I had one myself and even with just my 300lb self in it, I couldn't get it to plane out right or stay level with a 50hp Merc. The boat handled rough water well but sat low in the stern if I were to move to the rear. I never felt it was in danger of capsizing due to my weight but it sure did rock and roll side to side as I moved about. With me alone standing at the rear of the boat fishing, the splashwell would take on water, which led me to caulk and seal all the seems and screws. I finally gave up on it and went back to my aluminum boats.
Mine weighed in at 540lbs with two back to back seats in it, then ad the weight of a Mercury 50hp 4 cylinder outboard.
I kept my motor, seats, and trailer when I sold mine, and got $850 for it back in the spring, but I had it listed for 6 months before it sold.
The hull was solid, no cracks, no paint other than bottom paint, and the windshield was usable but had a few cracks and lots of checking in the Plexiglass. The transom was ok, a bit wet but serviceable for a fishing boat. It didn't move but the lower two bolts showed water when I drilled them for the motor. (The previous owner had a 30hp mounted only by clamps, but it would not get on plane for me with that motor).

They're great hulls, far better than most realize with very few issues. If one was to do a poured transom with Seacast in one of those, it would be 100% wood free and last forever.

I sold mine to a guy that uses it for back bay crabbing, he hung a 35hp Evinrude on it and just putts around the back bays pulling in a few crab pots each morning. He loves the boat but he also weighs about 130lbs tops compared to my 300lbs. My final decision to sell it came when I was pulling the anchor one day, which was stuck in the mud, and noticed that one gunwale would dip to the water line when I pulled hard on the anchor rope off to the port side. That situation may have been better with two in the boat as the second person may well have held the other side down, but I'd guess that boat has no more than maybe 1100lbs including the motor, fuel, seats, tackle, and passengers. The way I looked at mine was that the motor and controls were about 200, the 10 gallon fuel tank full was about 80lbs, plus two seats, another 40 lbs, my weight, 300lbs, plus a couple of rods and reels, a tackle box, cooler full of ice made another 150lbs or so, then the 10lb anchor and rope, and the occasional passenger, the boat was just too small.
Something that I found is that no matter what size boat I have, the usually load for a day out fishing doesn't change much, and even with a bigger engine, it don't add much weight, maybe 100lbs or so. I run my 16' Starcraft SS and have no issues, the boat runs and plains out just fine with a 70hp and has none of the weight related issues I had with the MFG. The MFG felt better going through really rough water, but that was the shape of the bow in play. That added couple of feet of displacement make all the difference in the 1000-1200lb range when it comes to rated weight. Both boats have similar ratings, both weight about the same but the slightly larger SS never dips low in the water with my weight or even with three big guys onboard. The ability to make full use of the whole boat helps too, as the cooler and bait can stay up front while we fish off the stern and sides.